Sixteen Elevens Later

I find myself in New York City, which makes an always surreal day – September 11 – even more surreal. A 16th anniversary of an event is hardly a notable one – though someone born then can now drive, which is wild – but with each passing year we move away from 2001, it feels more and more like that was literally a different world. Our world is fucked up in a lot of ways right now, but nothing compares to that day.

I was taken back when I saw this tweet earlier today from the University of Michigan’s account. I was just a few days into my sophomore year when I woke up to frantic calls from my mother. To be fair, many of the calls from my mother are frantic. But these kept coming, over and over and over again. I turned on the TV…

I had actually been in NYC a few weeks prior on a last-second trip with friends before the school year started. We literally had a conversation of whether or not we should go to the observation deck of the World Trade Center, but opted against it because “we can always do that later”.

A few weeks later, the “later” option was removed. The Twin Towers were inverted, becoming open wounds in the chest of America with all of us watching, live. Some of us on television, some of us here, in person.

It was absolutely terrifying. And yet, it was one of those events so unspeakably awful that it bonded people together, quickly. Thousands of students, from different backgrounds, from different countries, descended upon the heart of campus, almost as one living, breathing organism.

It will never not be weird and surreal to think back upon it.

And that’s now 2-for-2 in terms of Happy Hour newsletters that are decidedly sad. Won’t make a habit of it. Aside: happy birthday to my sister.

People don’t like this, but if we’re being honest, professional football, at least as it exists today, is not going to be around at some point in the future. It’s hard to know exactly how far out that future point is, but I’d be shocked if the NFL is as dominant as it is today in 2037.

John Branch spoke to Ed Cunningham, a former NFL player, who recently walked away from his lucrative gig as a commentator with ABC/ESPN:

“I know a lot of people who say: ‘I just can’t cheer for the big hits anymore. I used to go nuts, and now I’m like, I hope he gets up,’” Cunningham said. His eyes welled with tears. “It’s changing for all of us. I don’t currently think the game is safe for the brain. And, oh, by the way, I’ve had teammates who have killed themselves. Dave Duerson put a shotgun to his chest so we could study his brain.”

By the time Labor Day weekend wraps, summer box-office revenue is expected to finish at $3.8 billion, down more than 15 percent over summer 2016, according to comScore. That’s the steepest decline in modern times, eclipsing the 14.6 percent dip in 2014. Attendance also plummeted, down an estimated 18 percent. Official summer stats will be released on Monday or Tuesday.

And the number of actual tickets sold paints a bleaker picture, with total admissions likely to clock in at about 425 million, the lowest level since 1992, according to industry estimates.

Yes, the macro trend of people staying at home to watch content more on their already large screens is real. But Hollywood is killing itself here by releasing shitty movie after shitty movie. And rather than take responsibility for this, they blame Rotten Tomatoes. 🍅

Speaking of 9/11, K. Austin Collins has a great post about the film 25th Hour, arguing it is the definitive film about that period in time – because it’s not directly about the event. But captures everything in New York around it.

Aside: this is one of my (and Megan’s) favorite films. I’ve probably seen it two dozen times. It’s one of those films I don’t mind always having on in the background of anything I happen to be doing. It’s also, of course, based on a book of the same name by David Benioff – whom people will know better these days as one half of the showrunning duo behind Game of Thrones on HBO. (And yes, he’s related to Marc Benioff.)

Great, raw, honest post by by Isaiah Thomas on his sudden trade from the Boston Celtics to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Too often we hear players involved in such deals say “all the right things” – which is fine, but they’re clearly not always sincere. This feels like it is.

Sticking with sports, this profile of Kaepernick is a must-read. No matter what you think about his protest – he’s such an interesting, dynamic person. Watching the football games during week 1, and seeing how badly some of the QBs played, it’s a disgrace he’s not on a team. The NFL should be ashamed of itself.

I asked Twitter for the best way to find where movies are available – a lot of responses came in, but one from Keegan Jones noted I should check out his app. I did, and it’s great – a super simple way to save movies you want to see and more importantly, see where they’re currently playing (be it streaming or for download). (iOS only, sadly)

Lots of good stuff in here from Steven Johnson, but this is most surprising:

‘‘It’s because we’re getting better at technology,’’ he says. The modern descendants of the TV and radio towers that inadvertently sent Elvis to the stars are far more efficient in terms of the power they use, which means the ‘‘leaked’’ signals emanating from Earth are far fainter than they were in the 1950s.

Had not considered that. Cable may have killed our hopes of finding ET!